Contact centers frequently attempt to contact individuals associated with an account for a variety of purposes. For example, contact centers often reach out and contact individuals regarding delinquent accounts, e.g., past due debts. The account may be related to a credit card, a mortgage, a student loan, or some other type of instrument. Frequently, there may be a number of ways of reaching the account holder (also referred to herein as the debtor). For example, the account holder may have provided various telephone numbers that can be used to reach them, including a home telephone number, a cell phone number, a work telephone number, alternative residence number, spouse's telephone number, etc. In addition, the account holder may be reached by written correspondence at an address or by email although voice calls may be preferred by many contact centers for various applications as they are usually more effective. However, it may be appropriate to supplement or otherwise alternate the form of communication by mixing telephone calls and other message-based forms of communication.
Frequently, there is a choice as to when and how the account holder is contacted by a contact center. Various regulations, policies, or other considerations are relevant in selecting which telephone number to attempt, and when the call is initiated. One approach used in the past was to attempt to contact the account holder using any and each telephone number and as many times as possible, but this approach is no longer an acceptable technique and can be frequently counterproductive. It can also lead to a poor utilization of resources. Further, such an approach can be deemed as harassment, and other regulations may be applicable that impact the forms of communication used and when.
Contact centers may frequently service accounts from different clients. In this context, a “client” is a company that holds the debt and which may have retained a contact center to collect the debt on behalf of the client (or the contact center may be operated by the company itself). It is quite possible that a contact center may service accounts associated with different clients that are service providers such as retailers or banks. In these instances, oftentimes an individual account holder who is delinquent with one account of a first service provider may also be delinquent with another account of a second service provider (e.g., both service providers may provide similar services, such as retailers of household goods). This presents further issues with respect to how a contact center should contact an account holder when that account holder is affiliated with multiple client accounts serviced by the contact center.
A contact center may have the capabilities to program an order of different telephone numbers to use when attempting to contact an account holder. However, such capabilities may be limited, and frequently, whatever logic is defined must be used for all accounts in a calling campaign or for all accounts of a client. For example, a contact center may be configured to use a home number first and if unsuccessful, then use a mobile number. However, this logic may then be required to be applied for all accounts to be contacted. The contact center may not have the flexibility to use different logic for different accounts. In addition, more complicated logic flows may be desired that cannot be defined. Further, defining such logic may be complicated and error prone, and may require additional training and expertise.
Thus, systems and methods are required for providing a flexible, but easy to use, interface for defining various contact attempts sequences that specify how and when an account holder is to be contacted, as well as accommodating the use of multiple channels and telephone numbers associated with the account holder. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the concepts and technologies herein are presented.